The Schools Council initiated this evaluation of Nuffield Secondary Science at the point when school trials of the materials were largely complete. As a result the evaluation focussed on the early adoption of the project by schools.

Nuffield Secondary Science carried out the ‘bold experimentation’ necessary to devise a new curriculum for the majority of students in secondary schools that the Newsom Report, Half Our Future had called for in 1963.

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Most of the publications produced by the Nuffield Secondary Science project were designed to provide ideas for teachers. The detailed guidance was intended to help teachers to plan and implement science courses for the three-quarters of young people in secondary schools that would not take O-level.

The books...

This Nuffield Secondary Science theme ranges from the local rocks and weather to outer space. Thus it covers aspects of earth science, meteorology and astronomy. 

Areas for investigation: The information in the theme book provides detailed practical advice and guidance related to a wide...

The developers of Nuffield Secondary Science described the resources they published as a 'quarry' from which teachers could select suitable material to build courses that would be significant for their students.

The resources are divided into eight themes. Each theme is divided in a number of fields of...

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, challenges students to explain the phases of the Moon by linking the movement of the Moon around the Earth with our perspective from Earth of light and shadow on the Moon.

The two files are identical, apart from the curriculum links stated in the teachers...

Physics and the Earth Sciences for Middle Schools is one of the titles in the series of ASE Lab Books that were published in the early 1970s for the Association for Science Education by John Murray. Each title covered one or two topics and brought together the best of...

In this activity developed by the Institute of Physics, students use iron and sand to model the composition of the Earth and estimate what fraction of the Earth is occupied by its iron core. After completing this activity, students should be able to: *Measure mass and volume. *Calculate density from mass and volume...

In this activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, students use real data, taken from a scientific paper, to plot the rotational curve of M31 (Andromeda), our neighbouring spiral galaxy. They will look at Kepler’s third law to predict the motion of stars around the centre of M31. They will then measure the...

The Power Station Project is a simulated case study from the Science in Society series dealing with the various decisions that have to be made when a new power station is being planned. It was designed as an integral part of the Energy section of the Science in Society course. It is assumed that an Electricity...

Practical Action is a development charity which uses simple technology to fight poverty. The learning resources in this collection look at how issues such as climate change and the need for renewable energy can be tackled. The resources contain background information, teachers' packs, classroom activities, stimulus...

This booklet, produced by Dr. Lucie Green, from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, and funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), contains four simple activities to enrich the teaching of Solar system science and beyond. The activities are: Keeping Safe in the Sun – learning about UV and sun...

The Pupil Researcher Initiative (PRI) was a major UK school science curriculum development initiative. The overriding aim of PRI was to raise student motivation and achievement in school science through providing exciting innovative and stimulating curriculum materials and activities. The briefs were intended to...

Pupil Research Briefs (PRBs), produced by the Centre for Science Education, were designed to support the teaching and learning of science (including the separate sciences) at GCSE and Scottish Standard Grade levels. Each brief was targeted at a topic within the curriculum at the time.

Most PRBs also provided...

Produced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), these naked Scientist podcasts look at a wide range of general science questions in an accessible and informative way. In these podcasts, the Naked Scientist answers questions from callers into Talk Radio...